Search This Blog

Zucca - Italian Craving Part 2

So in the span of two weeks, we hit up Bocca di Lupo and Zucca. Yes, there was a bit of an Italian craving. We live near Zucca and have heard really great things about it's seasonal contemporary Italian cooking. The restaurant is on what I call "low-key-hipster" Bermondsey Street, home to some of my favorite London restaurants now. I could now comment on the interior (tasteful, simple, borderline chic), but really...not very important.

A medley of bread and vegetables with olive oil and salt was a welcoming start.

First up was the scrambled eggs with crab and pangrattato...which is just a fancy Italian way of saying...bread crumbs. But, I'll admit they were some damn good nutty crunchy bread crumbs. Actually the entire plate was beautiful and silky.

Second course was a pasta dish of orecchiette with octopus, tomato and chilli. I thought this was a bit plain and tasted more of fresh tomato sauce than it did of octopus or seafood for that matter. But the orechiette was fun... and yes it's acceptable to describe food as fun.

Next up, I can't remember the official name of this dish, but it was my favorite. It was a grilled eel with some smokey bacon and polenta. I've never had eel like this before, to be fair I've never had eel in any non-sushi form. I was surprised by it's mild flavor and meaty texture. And I can't say anything bad about crispy bacon and creamy polenta. As if this was not rich enough, why not a generous drizzle of olive oil, after all it's Italian.

Without a doubt, Zucca's most famous dish is the veal chop. The inside was kind of a melt-in-your mouth tender, while the outside was charred and simply seasoned. I can't deny this was probably beautifully cooked for gourmet standards, but for my personal taste it was a slightly too rare and few parts were difficult to take down. What I loved most of all was the bright lemon running through both the veal and the spinach.